This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 2002-19968, filed on Apr. 12, 2002, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display panel and a method of manufacturing a front panel of the plasma display panel, and more particularly, to a plasma display panel using carbon nanotubes and a method of manufacturing a front panel of the plasma display panel.
2. Description of the Related Art
Plasma display panels display characters, graphics, or motion-pictures using visible rays emitted by the collision of ultraviolet rays emitted from plasma with phosphors, the plasma formed of gas discharged from the place between front and rear panels.
Plasma display panels are classified into a direct current type, an alternating current type, and a combination type of the two types, according to the electrode structure. Alternating current plasma display panels provide less damage to electrodes than direct current plasma display panels.
In order to manufacture the alternating current plasma display panels, X and Y electrodes for sustain discharge are installed on a glass substrate, which is a front panel on the display side, and an address electrode is installed on the rear panel at the opposite side in order to write data. Next, the two panels are sealed with each other, and the space between the two panels is exhausted of air and then injected with a discharge gas. The front panel is manufactured by the following steps of patterning a transparent electrode; forming a bus electrode; forming a transparent dielectric layer; and forming a protective layer.
In order to improve the luminescence efficiency of such a conventional plasma display panel, the invention disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 2001-39031 uses carbon nanotubes having high secondary electron emission characteristics for plasma display panels.
FIGS. 1 and 2 are cross sections of embodiments of the front panel of the plasma display panel disclosed in the aforementioned Korean patent. Referring to FIG. 1, in a first embodiment of the conventional front panel, sustain electrodes 12 are aligned on a glass substrate 10, and bus electrodes 14 are formed on the sustain electrodes 12. Furthermore, a transparent dielectric layer 16 is formed on the sustain electrodes 12 and the bus electrodes 14 by screen printing. Thereafter, a protective layer 18 is formed of carbon nanotubes on the upper surface of the dielectric layer 16.
Referring to FIG. 2, a second embodiment of the conventional front panel has the same structure as the first embodiment of FIG. 1 except that an MgO protective layer 19 is formed on the dielectric layer 16 and a protective layer 20 of carbon nanotubes is then formed on the MgO protective layer 19.
Such conventional plasma display panels significantly decreases the transmittance of visible rays due to coating of the entire front panel with opaque carbon nanotubes, rather degrading the luminescence efficiency. Particularly, the plasma display panel of FIG. 2 has difficulty in technically growing carbon nanotubes on the MgO protective layer 19.